Episode 15 of His & Her Circumstances (Kare Kano) provides an interesting flashback that tells the story of how Yukino's parents first met and eventually married. While it's not an episode that's integral to the overall plot of the series, it's interesting in that it focuses solely on two characters who never seem to enjoy the spotlight otherwise. It's also noteworthy in that it's the first episode that was made after Director Hideaki Anno left the production.

"Forever and Before" is basically a retelling of that flashback, using footage from that episode and that episode alone. In itself, that provided quite a challenge, complicated even more by the fact that only a portion of the episode (the flashback, essentially) was suitable for use as source footage. Going in, I was perfectly aware that I was embarking on a rather interesting experiment, and was perfectly prepared to fail miserably. Even while editing, I wasn't quite sure how things were going to turn out.

Well, things turned out remarkably well, if you ask me.

I wouldn't want to spoil too much by explaining in detail what the video is really about. If you've seen episode 15 of Kare Kano, you already know the story. If not, here's a quick rundown: Yukino's father lived with his grandfather while young, following the death of his parents. He met his future wife (Yukino's mother) at a young age and romance blossomed as they grew older. His grandfather would eventually die, of course. While this story was originally told from beginning to end, I begin the video at the end, establishing a present time, and make references to the past. So yes, the video jumps around between eras, but it shouldn't be confusing.

Stylistically, I tried to keep the video as true to the original footage as possible. Of course, with limited source footage, it's not like there was much I could do. There are a lot of still shots, just like the original. The video is in black and white, just like the original (as if I could change that anyway!). Parts of it retain the feel of an old filmstrip, just like the original. Effects are on the minimal side, although those who know the episode well might notice some subtle things I did here and there. I also edited the audio to fit the mood/timeline of the video better...you'll understand when you hear it.

It's difficult to provide an in-depth description. It's a sad video, but not in a heavy, melodramatic sense. It's introspective. It's full of reminiscence.

Anyway, technical notes: edited with Adobe Premiere 6.0, post-production with VirtualDub, MPEG encode done with TMPGEnc. Total editing time was roughly 25 hours, most of which occurred in two very long sessions. It seems everything was clicking from the start, and I didn't have to spend much time going back and cleaning things up. I wish it was always that way...

And yes, you could interpret the end of the video as a bit of an homage to Hsien Lee's "Sappy Self-Indulgence". While it wasn't intentional, I was perfectly aware of the similarities while mulling the idea.